Auto Club Child Passenger Safety Class to be Held in Whittier

The Automobile Club of Southern California will host a free child passenger safety education workshop at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier on Wednesday, Jan. 23, for parents, expectant parents and caregivers of children up to 8 years of age. A highlight of the class will be discussion of the state’s enhanced child passenger safety law that went into effect in 2012 and has impacted more than 1.1 million children across California.

The state now requires that children under age eight must be properly buckled into a car seat or booster in the back seat of a vehicle.

The hospital is located at 12401 Washington Blvd. 90602. The 90-minute workshop held from 6-7:30 a.m. in Room F will focus on California’s child passenger safety laws, how to choose the proper child safety seat and how to install child safety seats from infant size to boosters.

Safety seats reduce risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers. Back seats increase a child’s chance of surviving a crash by 45 percent, according to the Auto Club. The Auto Club supported the year-old law.

“California’s roadways will be safer for our youngest passengers,” said Anita Lorz Villagrana, the Auto Club’s manager of community programs and traffic safety. The upgraded law is important, she added, because six and seven-year-olds are physically vulnerable since they’ve usually outgrown their forward-facing seats but are still too small to fit properly in a vehicle safety belt.

The class is for adults only. No car seat installations in vehicles will take place. Participants will receive take-home resources, including information on where to locate local car seat installation technicians and upcoming safety seat inspection events.

­­­­­­­Free parking available. Class space is limited and reservations are required. To register, please go to www.AAA.com/childsafety and for more information call Lora Babilo at the Auto Club’s Community Programs and Traffic Safety office at (714) 885-2312.

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The Automobile Club of Southern California is a member club affiliated with the American Automobile Association (AAA) national federation and serves members in the following California counties: Inyo, Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura.